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Contracts in Cyberspace

Posted by Hemos on from the talkin'-bout-game-theory dept.

phutureboy writes "In his online Journal of Interesting Economics, economist David D. Friedman (son of Nobel laureate Milton Friedman) presents some interesting ideas about the enforcement of contracts in cyberspace. The gist is that he sees a gradual shift away from public enforcement of contracts (i.e. government courts) to private enforcement (e.g. third party arbitration, reputationial enforcement). The rest of his site is interesting as well - he even has an archive of his open-source economics software, which includes a neat trading simulation game called Hansa."

6 of 61 comments (clear)

  1. you know what I hate about online contracts? by SuperDuG · · Score: 5, Funny

    Is forgetting to cancel them before my $2.99 trial membership is over...

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    Ignore the "p2p is theft" trolls, they're just uninformed
  2. private enforcement by wiredog · · Score: 4, Funny

    If youse don't comply wit da contract, we're gonna put yerse fingers in da car door. Den we're gonna close da door. See?

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    Best Slashdot Co
  3. In other news... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Never trust someone who says "I'll deploy your IT infastructure and manage the department" over IRC.

    It never works out.

  4. Nice game. by meringuoid · · Score: 4, Funny

    Hansa looks interesting... conquer the world through EU financial hegemony! Muhahaha! Civ with fewer soldiers around; nice idea.

    Shame about the large images... not good in mid-slashdotting :-)

    --
    Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
  5. Private enforcement of contract not new by wowbagger · · Score: 4, Funny

    The private enforcement of contracts has been around for quite some time.

    It was especially popular in Kansas City, during Prohibition.

    However, I was not aware that the legality of this means of enforcement had been accepted.

    If it has, then I must see a man about some spammer's patellas, and the forceful restructuring thereof...

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    www.eFax.com are spammers
  6. Mmm not! by Greedo · · Score: 2, Funny

    No freaking way am I gonna trade my Hanson CDs. Not even in a simulation. I would rather ...

    What? "Hansa?"

    Oh. Never mind.

    --
    Tuus crepidae innexilis sunt.